Category: Nature

When it’s cold and sleeting outside, my thoughts easily drift back to summer vacations. So today, I thought I would share a throwback post to my summer vacation in Oregon.

As you probably already know, I adore rocks. Rocks are pretty much the coolest creations on this planet. I have rocks all over my house, in my car, inside my suitcase, in my jewelry box; I even have a rock keychain! Well, while I was in Oregon, I found a super cool shop, called Nature’s Bling.

Nature’s Bling had some of the coolest things like this amethyst stalactite – or portable cave as I call it. If I were a rich woman… I would have five of these amethyst caves in my yard… or perhaps my ballroom… 🙂

Check out this huge chunk of rose quartz. I couldn’t even lift it! I find it interesting that both amethyst and rose quartz are the same type of rock, but have different minerals that change the color. Rose Quartz is pink because of the manganese it contains. Amethyst is purple due to iron impurities -and ultra violet irradiation.

Nature’s Bling is a fun rock shop, and I’d definitely recommend going the next time you are in Yachats, Oregon!

One of my favorite parts of my trip to Oregon, was actually a road stop in Idaho. Ben and I went to the Spencer Opal Mines and had so much fun. 🙂 It costed $15 a person, and we spent a few hours searching for hidden treasure.

The type of opal found at the Spencer Opal Mine is the milky white opal. Unlike peacock opals from Las Vegas, these little friends do not need to be protected with moisture.

It was a lot of looking, spraying with water (so you can remove all the dust), and more looking. Randy, an opal expert showed us examples of opal, and helped us tell the difference between opal with color play, and “common” opal. I was excited to find a few pieces with opal.

Ben definitely found the best piece. He could have taken it to a jeweler to make a ring. But, Ben likes the raw, rough quality of the uncut opal. I do have to agree that it looks pretty neat.

I also found George, and couldn’t wait to bring him home! He is made out of rhyolite and obsidian, which the is matrix surrounding the opals in Spencer. I love the pink, blobby stripes running across the surface. He is probably my favorite find at the opal mine.

This was so much fun -I am definitely hooked on finding my own gems. I’d love to try panning for gold or garnets in the future!

Finding the Seeds of Hope website is a bit difficult, so I created a basic information page for all those looking for this awesome thrift store. I plan on writing a future post about why I love Seeds of Hope so much. ❤

I did a lot of fun things this summer, and wrote a recap about all of that fun. Some of my adventures included a wedding in California, sanding a dining room set, a colonial-themed 4th of July party, and more. 🙂

I am starting a new blog post series, called the Weekly Round-Up. This way you can find all the posts in one spot. I think this will be great for my readers who don’t have time to check my blog every day. ❤